Need Help with Firewire PCI Card

I have a Dimension 8200 that I bought 3 years ago, and I want to be able to capture video from my Panasonic PV-GS250 camcorder.  I bought a StarTech PCI card (model PCI3UV22F) that provides several IEEE 1394 (Firewire) ports and USB ports.  When I tried to capture the video stream through the PCI card using either WinDV or MotionDV Studio (which comes with the Panasonic) I found that the quality of the captured video stream was poor.  A number of frames were missing in a 2 minute sequence, and obnoxious dead spots kept flashing on the video screen.  I found that the situation improved when I defragmented my hard drive (80 GB) a few times, and I got "almost acceptable" captured video quality.  However, some of the 1394 ports did not work at all, so I returned the PCI card to the manufacturer for a replacement. 

The replacement PCI card produces even worse quality.  Using all of the same equipment and 1394 cables as used previously, I found that I now miss about 30 % of the frames, and the recorded video looks like some of those early 20th century movies where all the people move in a jerky manner. 

A friend suggested that instead of trying to capture onto my C drive (about 30 GB free), I should use my external firewire drive (Maxtor 300 GB One-Touch II), which can connect to the computer using a firewire cable.  I did this and found that the situation was worse:  now I drop nearly half of the frames. 

It seems to me that since I now pass through the PCI card twice -- once coming from the camcorder to the MB, and again going from the MB to the external drive -- and the missed frame fraction nearly doubled, the problem must be with the PCI card.

I spoke with a technical service guy at StarTech, who makes the PCI card.  He says I must update my BIOS.  However, as I review the postings in this forum, I see the consistent warning about BIOS updates, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"  My computer is way out of warranty, so if I mess up my MB, I will be in deep trouble. 

My BIOS is presently running A07, and the latest version on the Dell site is A09, so there is the potential improvement.  Moreover, the A09 description mentions that the update will fix "resource allocation to some PCI devices when multiple adapters with bridges are in the system."  I'm not sure what all this means, but it does mention fixing problems with a PCI device, and I do have multiple PCI cards with 1394 and/or USB ports.  So maybe this update will actually solve the video capture problem I am having.

FYI, here is some information on my computer:

Dimension 8200

80 GB hard drive, Western Digital WD 800, WD Caviar drive, 7200 rpm, ULtra ATA

Approximately 30 GB free space on hard drive

Pentium 4 CPU, 2.26 GHz

256 MB RAM

Windows XP, SP2

 

So here are my questions:

1.  Should I update my BIOS? 

2.  If not, or if that doesn't solve my video capture problem, any ideas of what else I should try?  I'm certainly willing to buy a different brand PCI card, but only if there's a reasonable likelihood that my present problem is with the PCI card, not my system. 

3.  Does anybody have a brand of 1394 PCI card that they are particularly happy with?

4.  Could the problems be with the cables?  The cables I bought are the "Geek Squad" brand.

I first posted some of these same questions on the Dimension BIOS forum, and the response I received said yes, update the BIOS, it's worth the risk.  The response also suggested that I post the questions here, so here I am. 

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

laserguy